Fostering integrated, whole-systems approaches to biological research with two $75K grants for open source data-integration tool development

The different omics platforms—genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics and metabolomics—are generating new insights into how biological systems work at a molecular level. Although each individual omics approach provides a global view of a specific cellular process, this view is limited to only one aspect of the biological system. In order to gain a comprehensive understanding of the system as a whole, researchers are faced with the challenge of merging these very different data sets.

Agilent is supporting scientists who are taking on this challenge through our eMerging Insights Grant Program. We currently have two open initiatives for academic and non-profit researchers developing and/or improving open source, Agilent-compatible software tools to integrate multi-omics data. Each initiative will provide $75,000 to a single academic or non-profit research lab in fiscal year 2011. A proof-of-concept prototype or working solution must be demonstrated at the end of one year, using either existing data sets from the investigator’s own lab or institution, or from new or existing data sets produced at Agilent.

One of the most important outcomes of our eMerging Insights Grant Program is the development of open source* solutions for the analytical life science community. Any tools developed with this funding will be freely available, open source tools for the research community.

The submission deadline for these two initiatives is August 12, 2011. Application forms and instructions can be found at Agilent.com/lifesciences/emerginginsights. Awards will be announced September 30, 2011, 2011.

* All free or open-source licenses are acceptable except “any license requiring, as a condition of use, modification and/or distribution of the software subject to the license, that the software or other software combined and/or distributed with it be (i) disclosed or distributed in source code form; (ii) licensed for the purpose of making derivative works; or (iii) redistributable at no charge. Excluded Licenses include, but are not limited to the GPLv3 Licenses.“